Small Space Holiday Decor: Our Christmas Tree & Mantle

Those of you were following our adventures this time last year know that The New Yorkies don’t believe downsizing in space has to mean downsizing in spirit. We’ll revise that this year by saying downsizing in space and in budget does not have to mean downsizing in spirit. (Here’s the reason behind the revision, for those of you who are new.)

Turns out shopping our apartment and our collection of DIY supplies is just as fun as shopping our closet! So we hope today’s “Use-What-You-Have Mantle and Christmas Tree” and the decorations we’ll share over the next few weeks will give you a few ideas on saving space and spending less without compromising on holiday spirit!

This year we literally made our decorations go farther by breaking up our Christmas trees. Last year we had both of our table-top trees on the mantle, but since they’re our “big impact” items, we decided to spread them out. (Considering we’re in 470 square feet, we use the phrase “spread out” loosely!) So our lone, short tree didn’t look wimpy, we gave it a little extra height by detaching the base and propping it up in an urn we had on hand.

Since we have so much going on in our living room (even without Christmas decorations), we tried to stick with our red, green and pink ornaments for this tree. We had to fill a few the gaps with gold and silver ornaments, but everyone knows that glitter is a neutral anyway.

Another item we decided to repurpose was a small twig wreath that we had attached berry garland to last year. As with our trees, we thought breaking up the wreath and spreading out the garland would result in making a bigger impact with the same items. So the candles we have on the mantle got a festive update. Yes, we accessorized an accessory, and there’s a whole lot more where that came from!

So there you have it! Stay tuned to find out where the other tree went, what became of the twig wreath and what we did with all that berry garland! If you don’t want to wait, you can follow us on Instagram, where Gwyneth and I are spilling secrets right and left!

HA! Yes, you heard it here!
Thanks so much for the kind words on the tree! We had to do something to make our tiny tree look a little more substantial! Thank goodness we had that giant urn lying around!

Hi Jodi! Thanks so much for following our adventures! We’re psyched you’re here!
And your kind words on our tree are most appreciated! We really tried to make our space festive, even though we don’t have a lot of space or a big budget to work with!
We’re headed over to check out your blog now!

Your tree looks great – I love the urn. Looking forward to seeing more working with what you have/budget friendly DIY Christmas decorating in a small space…we have a small apartment to help decorate this year. : )

This is such a cute little idea for when you have limited space or don’t want/need a big tree! My mom actually is doing something almost exactly like this! She bought these fake potted looking little pine tree thingies (I think they are supposed to go on your deck or patio maybe?) Either way it looks great & you still totally get the tree effect!

Hi Stacey – Can you tell we are catching up on our replies today?!? The chest it’s on is an antique pie safe on loan from my Mom! I’m so in love with it! And thank YOU for hosting such a fun party and getting us all in the holiday spirit! Always look forward to the ideas I find at your parties!